Unspecified Vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat/Reader Allows Silent Repeated Printing (CVE‑2008‑0655)
What It Is – Adobe Acrobat and Reader contain a design‑level flaw that can be triggered by a specially crafted PDF. When opened, the file can cause the application to print silently an arbitrary number of times without user interaction.
Exploitability – The vulnerability is publicly disclosed; proof‑of‑concept files have been shared in the security community. No public exploit kit is known, but an attacker with limited access can trigger the behavior. CVSS v3.1 (estimated) ≈ 5.5 (moderate).
Affected Products – Adobe Acrobat (all supported versions as of 2008) and Adobe Reader.
Why It Matters for Trust & Control Assurance
- Audit‑ready logging – Uncontrolled printing can bypass normal logging, eroding evidence of who generated output and when. Continuous monitoring of print‑related events supports a defensible audit trail.
- Control of privileged operations – Printing is a privileged action on many endpoints; the flaw highlights the need for strict access‑control policies and verification that only authorized processes can invoke it.
- Demonstrable due‑diligence – Remediating legacy flaws and evidencing the fix through control‑mapping tools shows auditors that the organization actively manages hidden design weaknesses.
Recommended Actions
- Deploy Adobe’s security update that addresses CVE‑2008‑0655 (or upgrade to the latest Acrobat/Reader version).
- Disable silent‑print functionality via group policy or endpoint hardening scripts.
- Enable comprehensive logging of print jobs and integrate logs into a centralized SIEM for continuous monitoring.
- Map the “privileged operation logging” control to your framework of record and capture remediation evidence.
Source: CISA KEV – CVE‑2008‑0655